Festivals as interreligious events

For centuries, people in the High Andes have cel­ebrated rituals rooted in two belief systems: the Christian faith imported by the Spanish colonists and the religions of the Andean indigenous populations. Cultural anthropologist Dr Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar Sáenz explores how these religions became intertwined in language and festival culture – and what they tell us about power, ­adaptation and resistance.

While studying the anthropology of the Americas at the University of Bonn, Sabine Dedenbach specialised in the history and linguistics of the Andean cultures. In 1977, she spent a year at the University of St Andrews in Scotland on a DAAD scholarship – a formative experience that laid the foundation for her academic career. It was there that she perfected her command of Quechua, a language family that would become her gateway to a new world, and there that she chose her research focus: the interplay between religion, language and colonisation – and their influence on local celebrations.

“Indigenous and Christian elements combine – this cultural interaction is fascinating.”

“When the Spanish conquistadors sought to convert the indigenous population to Christianity, one of the obstacles was the difficulty of translating the Christian texts,” explains Sabine Dedenbach. For example, the missionaries used the Quechua word “Apu” to translate the word “God” despite the local communities having not just one but several Apus. “From the Manuscrito de Huarochirí, the only extensive written source in Quechua from circa 1608, we know that many indigenous peoples secretly continued to uphold their more nature-based religious world view.”

A hybrid form of festival culture emerged that exists to this day: on Trinity Sunday, the Quechua undertake a pilgrimage to Ausangate Mountain, the manifestation of one of the most powerful Apus. First they worship an image of Jesus in a Catholic chapel and then they climb to the summit. “This centuries-old procession combines indigenous and Christian elements,” says Sabine Dedenbach, “and this cultural interaction is fascinating.” —